Stillness and Silence part 2

 

This week we are entering the holy silence of God’s first language.  We are engaging our souls in slowing down and being in the unconditional (non-performance and production mode).  I love the following quote:

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing

there is a field.

I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.”  ― Rumi

Re-read that quote.  This is what silence offers us ~ a space with the sacred beyond the “shoulds” and to do lists and proving our worth and earning our keep.  Let’s engage the native language of our souls.

Find your phone or a timer and set it to 5 minutes.

~ Breathe in a deep breath and slowly exhale.  Try to have your exhale be longer than your inhale.  This means if you inhale to the count of five, exhale to the count of seven or eight. 

~ Choose a sacred word (love, peace, shalom, sun, Son, Creator) as the symbol of your intention to be open to God’s presence and action within and around.

~ Sitting comfortably and with eyes closed, settle briefly and silently introduce the sacred word as the symbol of your openness to God’s presence and action within and around.

~ When thoughts start to compose to do lists or feeling agitation at why you are doing this or tension sits on your shoulders, return ever-so-gently to the sacred word.

~ At the end of the prayer period, remain in silence with eyes closed with three or four more deep breaths.

Now, take a few moments to write down what you experienced.  Maybe today you felt the same as yesterday or maybe something new stirred within you.  Maybe you are not sure what you are “supposed” to have happened, which is a good question.  But you may not like the response, which is, there is no “supposed to” here.  What happens is what happens, even if all you experience is five minutes of quiet.  Or it was really four minutes, because the neighbor’s dog started barking and a car door slammed and your phone dinged with a notification.  I mean didn’t that person know you were trying to find nirvana??  There is NO right way, no right experience, no expectations other than to be in God’s presence ~ awake and aware of the Holy hovering in your life.

May these five minutes remind you that God is with you every minute this day.  Amen.